Bites from other Blogs

Blueberries are not the most popular pie fruit out there. Fresh, ripe berries are so sweet and juicy on their own that they can be difficult to contain with a pie crust. Sugar and Spice did a lovely job with a lattice crust on a Fresh Blueberry Pie. She managed to thicken the juice of the berries just perfectly so that the pie sliced with relative ease, and cut the rich sweetness with a bit of lemon to make the flavor of the pie really bright.

My tomato plants are really starting to come into their own now, and what started out as just a couple of tomatoes has already turned into a dozen within only a few days. I go through the same thing every year and always ahve my eye out for new tomato recipes, like the Tomato Jam at Habea Brulee. The jam sits somewhere between sweet and savory, with honey to bring out the natural sweetness in the fruit and other spices, from garlic to saffron, to give it richness that goes with meat and breads. The jam would also probably work well on burgers, as a bit of a change from traditional ketchup.

As a fan of both strawberries and barbecues, there is no way that I can reasonably resist Big Black Dog‘s Strawberry BBQ Sauce. It’s easy to make, just a standard no-cook barbecue sauce that has been enhanced with a lot of pureed, ripe strawberries. BBD notes that this recipe should be very easy to adapt to different fruits, like peaches, apricots or anything else in-season that you want to incorporate into a meal.

We can’t all get away to somewhere tropical for a vacation this summer. Work, family and life in general get in the way, but just because we’re not all hanging out on the beach somewhere doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the flavors of some classically indulgent tropical drinks. The Crepes of Wrath did an excellent job of encompassing the flavors of a pina colada in Banana Pina Colada Muffins. They’re packed with banana, honey, dried pineapple and raisins. Add in a splash of rum to really get the full effect of the cocktail.

I love passion fruit, in baked goods, in drinks, in just about anything. It can be a bit difficult for me to find here, so I rarely have a chance to use it. That makes me want to try recipes like Pittsburgh Needs Eated‘sYoghurt and Passionfruit Syrup Cake. The recipe comes from one of my favorite sources, Donna Hay magazine and involves only a simple vanilla cake doused in passionfruit syrup. If you (hopefully!) are somewhere where passionfruit is a bit more accessible to you than it is to me, this is definitely one to try this weekend.

Chubby Hubby‘s latest creation isn’t quite as simple. Heston Blumenthal’s popping-candy chocolate cake is exactly what it sounds like: an intense, rich chocolate cake that is spiked with a generous amount of Pop Rocks candy. The cake is very fun and gives you a rush of new textures in your mouth as you eat it, as the candies “pop” and release carbon dioxide in tiny bursts when you eat them. The cake looks elegant and refined, but instead of ending up with serious guests quietly enjoying dessert, you’ll end up with a room full of happy, laughing people if you serve this after a dinner party.